Old Habits Die Hard
by TheWayTheWorldEnds
Summary: Something inside Jasper snapped, "YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT EXISTANCE!" he said, as his usually controlled demeanour falling apart, throwing his book to one side and launched himself into a memory, sucking Edward along for the ride. Slight Edward bashing.


_Dedicated to Is, from someone who loves her more than both Eddies, X._

"_**We men are wretched things," – Achilles, Troy (2004)**_

A/N: _So, here it is my first foray into Twilight FanFiction. Sorry to all of those 'Immortalis' readers, an update will come soon, it's just I couldn't seem to stop writing this! :))_

_Some people may love it, like it or hate it, by the only way I will know is if you review! Flames will pointed at and laughed at. A warning for Edward fans... expect some bashing, so, please put your pitchforks down and review! :))_

**DISCLAIMER: I'm not Mormon, American or a multi-million dollar author, hence, I own nothing. If you recognise it I don't own it. Enjoy.**

-x-

Old Habits Die Hard.

It was a normal day.

Edward was out hunting, Emmett and Rosalie were dancing around to Glenn Miller in the front room and Esme was pottering around in the garden. Carlisle was sat in his study, studying a rather large medical journal, when he caught the scent of two vampires. Every member of the household  
stiffened and immediately paused their activities. There was no denying it, the two scents were  
approaching the household of the vegetarian vampires and with no Edward, and there was no one to asses for danger.

KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK.

A gentle – yet urgent – thrumming on the door shook Carlisle out of his reviver, and back into the real world; in which two mysterious strangers were outside the door. Carlisle put a gracious smile on his face and opened the door to the two visitors.

He was met by a strange sight: A small, child-like vampire, with short, spiked hair, and a charming smile, and her companion, the complete opposite of her, tall and imposing, with long scraggily blonde hair the hid most of his face, but carried and air of unsettlement. His eyes were darting around, looking at doors and for windows – perhaps he was looking for an escape route? Though the thing that struck Carlisle the most was their eye colour, they both had golden eyes, although the male's had a tinge of red in them, which, judging by the shade, told him that the man had slipped up a few weeks ago.

Even more surprising than that was, as soon as he opened the door, the female threw herself at him, but not as a gesture of attack, but in a large hug. Carlisle stiffened, but gently put her down, as the blonde male put in his hand on her shoulder, and hot her a look, which she seemed to understand perfectly, perhaps he was telling her to back off?

"Carlisle!" the female trilled in a high soprano, "I'm so excited to finally meet you! Is Esme around?"

This took Carlisle aback. How long had they been watching them? How had Edward not picked them up and how had they not been able to pick up a scent? The male behind him, almost sensing  
Carlisle's confusion, looked straight up at him, but then it seemed like he had remembered something and immediately moved his head right down, using his hand to smooth his wild hair down, and Carlisle briefly saw blemished skin, which was especially unusual for vampires with their perfect skin, but before he could think more of it, his hands were buried in his pockets.

Carlisle heard Esme, Emmett and Rosalie enter the room, but he was paying more attention to the couple – he could immediately could tell they were a couple, the way that the male positioned  
himself slightly in front of the female in a protective stance when Emmett, the tallest and the most physically intimidating of the coven-family, entered the room. The male had obviously assessed him to be a threat, as he bared his teeth. The male suddenly seemed alot more dangerous.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself, my name is Alice, and this is Jasper," she said in her sing-song voice, touching the male – Jasper's – arm briefly, without a care in the world, and probably not realising the rising tension in the room.

"Well, you know my name Alice, and Esme's, can I introduce-"Carlisle started, before he was  
interrupted by Alice.

"That's Rosalie and Emmett, and Edward is out hunting mountain lion," she smiled.

Was this girl for real?

"Well, Jasper," said Carlisle, nodding at him, "Alice. Would you like to come into my study?"

Alice grinned at Carlisle, and he couldn't help grinning back.

-x-

"So, Alice, tell me about yourself," said Carlisle, after Jasper and Alice has seated themselves in his study. Alice was sat down and relaxed in her chair, and Carlisle used this time take in her  
appearance. Apart from her choppy hairstyle and golden eyes, she was wearing a woollen dress, which, upon closer inspection had flecks of leaves, dirt and small amounts of animal blood in the  
fibres, and, unusually she was barefoot, and her tiny feet were dirty with mud and other things, and it looked like she hadn't had a wash in a while. Next to her was Jasper, who was sat right on the edge of his seat, looking ready for any sign of attack or movement at all. Like Alice, his casual clothing was dirty and his had the ever so slight hint of human blood on it, but certainly not enough to affect  
Carlisle. Again, like Alice, he was barefoot, but he was almost hiding them from view, and if he was self conscious of them. The little that Carlisle had seen of his exposed skin, he saw white blemishes, but he would need a better look to see what they were clearly.

"Well, I don't really have much to say, I remember the change--" for the first time, Alice faltered, looking down at her hands, "But before that it was just black," Carlisle was positive that is vampires could cry, a small amount of tears would be gently running down her face. Resting a hand that was now covered with a thick leather glove, Jasper rested his hand on her shoulder, and whispered something in her ear, that Carlisle, even with his advance hearing couldn't hear.

"There is something else Carlisle-," she paused, and suddenly completely zoned out, she was staring at a point in the wall, just behind Carlisle's head. This startled Carlisle, but Jasper made no reaction, except place his hand on hers. Suddenly she was back in the room and looking at Jasper in a curious way for a few seconds, before turning back to Carlisle.

"I see the future," she proclaimed, and for the second time that day, the whole household froze,  
listening to their conversation.

Carlisle had heard of many gifts, there was Edward and his mind-reading, Marcus, who could  
measure relationships, Kat and her electric touch, but nothing like this.

This was extraordinary. And completely impossible.

Seeing Carlisle's wonder and bemusement, Alice smiled gently and continued, "It's all subjective, you see, if someone decides to do something, I'll see it, but if it is a spur of the moment idea, I'll miss it. Ever since I woke up from my change I saw vision of Jasper," she said, smiling up at him, "and your family, Carlisle," she grinned.

Carlisle was flabbergasted, but intrigued.

"We had tried so hard to find you over the years, and now we have found you, I wondered whether we could stay for a while?" she asked timidly. "I think Jasper is finding it still rather difficult to adjust to your 'vegetarian' lifestyle, and we both need all the help we can get," she continued, her eyes flicking towards Jasper, with a troubled facial expression.

"I can't see why we couldn't," Carlisle answered, smiling gently at the odd couple.

The sound of someone running at full speed up the stairs and into Carlisle's office warned the  
occupants of the arrival of Rosalie, and her statuesque figure staring incredulously at Carlisle, and then showing Alice and Jasper he sharp pointed teeth, growling, slightly.

Faster than even the vampire eye could see, Jasper had flung Alice backwards, and was openly  
snarling at Rosalie, bringing his whole face into the light.

And it was a sight to behold.

Thousands of half crescent vampire bites littered his face, and continued down onto his neck and arms. His neck was particularly marred, along with his nose and eyes, with hundreds upon hundreds of marks where teeth had pulled at the skin and ripped it clean off. Hs face was a massive warning light, it was shouting danger. How many had tried to kill Jasper? The same amount that that died in the process, presumably.

Rosalie stopped baring her teeth, almost immediately and took a step back, toward Emmett, who after gaping with shock, was looking at Jasper with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

By this time Esme had made her way up to Carlisle's study, and was peeking out behind Carlisle, looking at Jasper with a face full of pity – which seemed to fuel his rage. It wasn't until Alice walked (but Alice didn't walk – she danced) over to him and put her tiny hand into his gloved hands, and gazed directly into his eyes. This felt like a distinctly private moment, before he turned to Rosalie and Emmett, uttering his first words in the Cullen Household, "Old habits die hard," he murmured, is voice a low tenor, with just a hint of Texan drawl just peaking through.

Fascinated, Carlisle pressed on, "Old habits?" he questioned.

"Southern habits," Jasper replies shortly, and Carlisle got a distinct feeling that Jasper would not talk about past much, especially if he was implying what he thought he was implying. Carlisle also  
wondered what Edward would make of the strange couple, especially with his abilities, because they just got curious and curiouser.

-x-

Since the excitement of Jasper and Alice's arrival, things had calmed down a bit. Alice had decided that she and Jasper would take Edward's room (due to the fact that it had the best view) – much to the delight of Rosalie, who however much she ignored the new-comers, couldn't resist an  
opportunity to aggravate Edward.

Apart from Jasper's blunt reply about his origins on the day that they had arrived, he had kept  
himself to himself, speaking only when someone spoke to him, and only hunting with Alice.

Alice tried bonding with Rosalie and Esme with a joint love – shopping. It turned out her rather grubby appearance was only due to the fact that they had been hunting when she got a vision of a definite location of the Cullen's and in her excitement, had not changed. Shopping was one of Alice's great loves (after Jasper, who came first) and with a almost infinite amount of money – courtesy of being able to predict stock-market trends – Alice and Rosalie were slowly getting rather attached to each other's company.

But today was a big day – it was the day that in her mind, Alice had dubbed 'E' day. Today was the day of the homecoming of Edward. Considering that all of his stuff had been moved to the garage and he had two complete strangers in his coven, Carlisle wasn't optimistic.

-x-

Edward Cullen was usually a very rational vampire – he thought things through, he rationalised things through in his mind, before acting. But finding two stray vampires had been adopted by his family-coven whilst he had been out tasting the wildlife was a little too much to bear.

After promptly rejecting a hug from the small female, prompting a dark look from the tall male, he stomped straight up to Carlisle's office.

"Ah, Edward, I trust you have meet Jasper and Alice?" asked Carlisle, looking at Edward thoughtfully. "Edward," Carlisle continued, holding up his hand to block off whatever Edward was about to say, "please get to know them before you jump to any potentially damaging conclusions,"

Dejected, Edward nodded and walked a speed that to a human would seem impossibly fast, to his bedroom. Expecting around fifty year's worth of journals and his precious books and records, and other memorabilia, instead he found a rather large double bed, and piles and piles of books, instead of his own neat shelves, these books were scattered in heaps and piles (it looked like they had been dumped) – a kind of organised chaos.

"Sorry – but your bedroom had the best view," said a small voice from behind him.

Edward assumed it was Alice – the small female whose hug he'd rejected earlier.

"Sorry about that, I was just a bit confused, let me introduced myself, I'm---" he started before she interrupted him.

"Edward, I know. I know quite alot about you Edward Cullen," she said, tapping the side of her  
forehead at the questioning look he had sent her. "I can see the future," she announced, smiling at his bemused and slightly critical facial expression. "I know you don't believe me, you had that facial expression when Emmett told you that your old piano just broke," she grinned, obviously enjoying his slack-jawed facial expression. "Believe me now?"

As it turned out, Edward and Alice got on like a house on fire. Sometimes to converse they hardly needed to speak, they would just look into each other's minds. Not much could be said for Jasper and Edward's relationship, though. Something about Jasper agitated Edward to no end, maybe it was the way that Jasper's mind was always working and processing, always assessing exits and  
escape routes, always observing – he already knew the strongest bonds in the coven-family and the weaker ones, who was likely to turn on who...and in Edward's eyes, Jasper's biggest flaw was his  
relationship with Alice. Perhaps it was envy, after being alone for so long, he hated seeing someone he really cared about (in a purely sisterly way, of course) be paired and obviously very attached to someone who he didn't like. At all. He couldn't comprehend that Alice –sweet Alice – would spend time with Jasper – brooding Jasper – on her own free will. As if sensing his own emotions whenever all three were in the same room together (a cocktail of intrigue, horror and disgust) Jasper treated Edward with a contempt that if Edward had his own blood, would have made it boil. All the tension came to blows one day, a month after Edward's return.

The whole family was out hunting, apart from Jasper, who was sitting quietly reading and Edward, who was channelling his aggression through banging out some Bach on the piano.

Suddenly, the piano stopped and Edward stormed into the room.

"Please could you stop doing that!" Edward suddenly shouted, watching as, although Jasper made no movement, his jaw tensed and his eye's stopped following the words on the page.

"Stop what?" Jasper asked, very quietly.

"The endless...." Edward struggled to find a word, "NOISE!" he exploded, "The endless planning and plotting is driving me insane!" Edward shouted, a months' worth of anger and confusion bubbling over his usually calm state.

"You have no idea," Jasper said, again keeping his voice calm and collected, irritating Edward even more.

"I think I do Jasper, I can read minds, remember? I know everything about you," replied Edward is anger feeding his anger.

Something inside Jasper snapped, "YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT EXISTANCE!" he said, as his usually controlled demeanour falling apart, throwing his book to one side and launched himself into a memory, sucking Edward along for the ride.

_The air was still and the night was calm, they were undetected – Alessandro's newborns stood no chance, and they descended. Gone was any shred of humanity that may have been left in him, he was a Vampire, and these – children – were his prey.  
Snarling, ripping, shredding, tearing, biting.  
He was a killing machine.  
But that wasn't to say he didn't get hit.  
One leapt for his eye pulled at the marble skin, and fell into his trap.  
Grabbing the newborn he tore it straight in two and threw it aside.  
And so the cycle continued again and again and again and again and again,  
until every last newborn was gone and Maria's army was victorious once more.  
For this was the South – and it was survival of the fittest. _

Suddenly closing off his mind, Jasper snarled, looking the very part of a southern warlord at the height of his ferocity.

"You think you had it bad here with Carlisle and your almighty mind reading powers!" His powerful voice mocking Edward as he advanced. "You know nothing of real Vampires! You have never seen the things that I used to see every day for one hundred years! And you think that I'm not good enough for Alice – don't you get it? I THINK THAT EVERY DAY, EVERY TIME I AM WITH HER!" saying the most that he had ever said to anyone during his stay at the Cullens.

"Look, Jasper, I'm so-"

"I don't think that quite covers it, do you?" snarled Jasper.

"At least tell me about yourself, you seem to know everything about everyone else," said Edward weekly, trying to bring a rather un-funny joke to calm the tension in the air.

"Well," Jasper began tersely, "I was born as Jasper Whitlock........."

Fin.

A/N: _I know the ending_ (He is telling his story as told in _Eclipse _if anyone cares) _was awful, I couldn't think of anything. The only way to let me know your disappointment is via review!_

_PM me if you see any mistakes and they be corrected._

_I hope you enjoyed and that it wasn't too craptacular._

_Miz._


End file.
